SABINA SULÉ Statement

Born:  Azerbaijan

Resides:  California

CV

I start with precise realistic drawings of people from live models or photos.  Then, I paint a transparent layer of colors. Another drawing of a human figure is followed again by the transparent layers of paint. I often scrape off top layers to uncover the underlying images and rearrange them. I continue this until the painting loses most of its representational aspect. This process is reminiscent of “palimpsest” (a Greek for "again" + "I scrape."), a manuscript that has been written on, scraped off, and used again.

As human figures overlie, hide, and morph into each other, new objects emerge from the broken down forms. I focus on the “plasticity” of these new objects; plasticity here is the quality of being artificial, superficial, or synthetic.  The earlier layers of visual information are hidden or modified by later ones. Similar revisions occur in human history. Factual information is manipulated by those in control, thus, creating the “plastic language” of selective truth.